A few days ago I was thinking about upgrading my video card and getting more RAM for my current box, but after all the good advice I got here, I realized it might be a much better idea to upgrade all the core components of the system. I couldn't get more of my old memory, and any decent video card upgrade would be partly wasted on my aging system. Money's finite, but good hardware seems cheaper than it used to be and I threw together this system which I'd like your feedback on!

The only thing I do with it that's somewhat demanding is playing games (sometimes modded games) in 1920*1200. Occasionally I re-encode videos for use on my phone. Other uses like surfing and watching videos and listening to music aren't worth mentioning I guess.

This card seems fairly kickass. It trashes the 560Ti I think, and I'm not overly impressed by the GTX570 (closest competitor in the price range I think?) and also, it can be flashed to a full-fleged 6970 (!) Havent had a ATI card in a long time, but I'm told drivers have improved. Do they work as well on Intel systems than AMD systems?

Total price $892 or $797 (free shipping, +5% tax). It seems a fairly reasonable price for all that hardware.

I also already have a nice Antec full tower, 3 HDDs which would be relegated to storage (2 are Green drives for storage), a DVDrom, DVD writer, Logitech G15 keyboard and a G500 mouse which will go with this setup. Also, two 24-inch monitors, native resolutions 1920*1200 and 1920*1080.

I'd like your thoughts on this upgrade. Anything I should be wary of or wait for? I haven't brought hardware in years though I spent the day researching this a bit, so I really appreciate any input. :)

Edit: I should say I plan to try and flash that GPU to 6970, and also OC the Sandybridge, in case I'm shorter on power than I think.

Cant afford a 120+gb SSD for now, it's going to be my first SSD and I'm not too sure what I can expect from it, so my budget is just around 100$ for that part. I have several terrabytes of conventional disks after all. I think I can totally put my OS on a 64gb disk tho, with some space leftover for caching.

also some mobos come with a 20 gig ssd, like some dude pointed out ..wait,that may be it

Hm, the Gigabyte board boasts "smart response" but doesn't state plainly it comes with built-in SSD and then goes on to list "Intel Smart Response SSD Available Vender List" ... kinda makes it sound like its sold separately. This board would be my choice if I could be proven wrong on that point.

Gotta love the hardware market. You need a degree to sort through some of this stuff.

Edit: after researching more lengthily, I'm fairly convinced these two sub-200$ motherboards dont actually come with any SSD. Asus' wording is merely confusing by suggesting so. I've read comparative reviews of both and none suggest the SSD comes for free. Not to mention, with these kinds of basic 20Go SSDs easily worth 40-60$, it would have been surprising to find one "in the box" with either a 165$ or 190$ board.